The Dark Side of Change
by Twackycat
Summary: Third in the Change Series. It's been four years since The Fallen attacked, and things are changing again. Things that should have been left in the past are resurfacing and are bringing dark changes. Bayverse AU rated T. On Hiatus, probably indefinitely.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm back! I'm not dead, I've just had Finals at school, which is now over for me. So here's the third book in the Change series! Which kinda means if you haven't read the first two you'll be confused about this. As a reminder, I don't own Transformers, Hasbro does, and this is an alternate universe to the live action transformers movies. Rated T for violence and some language. Enjoy the chapter!**

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_It had been about three months since the Xanthium had come to earth, and those that came with it were fitting in with those of use that had been here for longer. I really got to know Mirage because he was also a scout and we got put on patrols together._

_It was easy to see why Mirage and the terror twins were friends, all three of them were pranksters, if the terror twins were bad, adding Mirage to them made everyone on base on edge. The only two on base who hadn't gotten pranked were me and my father, they didn't want to prank Prime, but they were trying to teach me to be a prankster as well. _

_Mirage and I were returning from a patrol, both of us tired, and just ready to get some recharge. We had just pulled into the main hanger when the alarms went off. Immediately both of us were in our mech forms, weapons out and systems on high alert._

"We've got incoming Decepticons! Everyone on alert!" _My father's voice came on over the comm link, while at the same time the other Autobots in the hanger were transforming, getting ready for battle._ "Starscream has been sighted along with several other unknown Decepticons."

_It was then that an explosion went off, and the whole base shook. I heard my father calling something out, that I didn't hear over the screaming and yelling of the soldiers. Before I could ask my father to repeat what he said, the ground started shaking more violently than it should have from a simple explosion. _

_Right then, what appeared to be a large rotating, razor sharp cable sprung up from the ground. It was nearly as big as I was, and judging from the rumbling, it wasn't the only one. At that moment I hated to be right, as several more of the broke through the concrete and asphalt that made up the floor of the hanger. _

_"Autobots get out of the hanger, and defend against the Decepticons." My father called this out as he drew his energon sword, swinging it at one of the protruding cables, cutting it clean in two. I pushed Mirage towards the entrance, and he didn't seem to hesitate. I however turned to see if there was anyone I could help. _

_"Bumblebee!" At the sound of my name, my helm snapped in the direction, and I saw the Chevy twins, Skids wrapped in one of the cables, while Mudflap was had three cables jutting out of the floor around him, stopping him from moving. _

_However annoying and immature the twins could be, they were still part of the team, and I needed to help them. I had just taken a step towards them, when the cable around Skids seemed to realize I was trying to help them, and tightened its grip, before drilling its head straight through Skids's spark chamber._

_Skids didn't have time to scream before his optics went dark, and my steps faltered. I snapped out of my slight daze, when I heard Mudflap screaming. He had collapsed to his knees, and was clutching at his chest, obviously in pain from his broken bond. _

_The three cables around the grieving mech drew back for half a second, as if in shock, before moving almost like one creature, and slamming down on the red Chevy. It made me sick to my tank, when I saw the spray of energon fly into the air. _

_After half a second, I switched out my right servo for my blade, and ran at where the cables had just murdered the Chevy twins. The cables didn't seem to realize that I was approaching them, until I nearly cut through one of them, and it seemed to let out a screech of pain, causing the others to turn towards me._

_"Bumblebee, we need to get out of here!" I didn't turn when I heard my mother's voice, instead exchanging my blade for my blaster, unleashing a short volley of shots at the group of cables. Then I felt a firm hand dragging me backwards, away from the cables. _

_After stumbling I turned and ran after my mom towards where dad and most of the others were standing. I noticed Elita was limping, and I immediately picked her up, easily getting both of us out of the nearly collapsing hanger. _

_Once outside with the others, I looked at my mom's leg to see what was wrong with it, only to see no sigh of injury. I flinched when a large explosion sounded behind us, and I looked over my shoulder watching the hanger be consumed in a ball of flame._

_Two screams pierced the air as our home collapsed, and my mother curled in upon herself, keeping her servos over her spark. Looking up for a second, I see Ironhide holding Chromia. Immediately I glanced around, dread filling me as I realized we were missing two more other than the Chevy twins._

_Without warning the terror twins and Mirage shot off, towards where the forms of Starscream, and the other Decepticons were retreating into the distance, obviously thinking their job was done. There was silence among the Autobots for a second, before the smoldering remains of the hanger exploded again._

_Rather than being an explosion from above it was an explosion from below, sending molten pieces of rubble spewing into the air, revealing the largest cable yet. It was easily thirty or so feet in diameter, and obviously the one in charge. It seemed almost transform, parts folding back to reveal a mech with a single blood red optic. _

_"Shockwave." My father growled this at the mech, and I could only assume it was his designation. Optimus drew his sword again, at the same time as Shockwave raised one of his arms, which I then realized was nothing but a cannon and fired._

_My first thought was to laugh, the shot missed my father completely, but that was when I realized that Optimus wasn't Shockwave's target. I couldn't properly dodge with my mother unconscious in my lap, but I leaned far enough it hit my shoulder instead of my spark._

I sat up suddenly, breathing heavily, gritting my teeth as phantom pains laced through my shoulder. Almost immediately strong yet gentle hands gripped my shoulders, and I looked into my father's eyes which were laced with worry for me.

"Bumblebee, it was just a nightmare, you're fine." I just looked at him for a second, before nodding my head. "Which was is? Tyger Pax?" I shook my head. "Megatron or The Fallen?" Again I shook my head. "The Chevy twins and Shockwave?"

When I nodded my head to this, my father pulled me into an embrace. We stayed like that for close to a minute, my father gently rubbing my back. When he stopped he lifted my chin up so that I had to look him in the eyes.

"Bumblebee, I know you feel like their deaths are your fault, but there was nothing you could have done. I couldn't have done anything in that situation." I turned my head away from him, not able to keep looking at him.

_"You could have saved them, you're Prime." _As soon as I shared my thought through our bond, my father responded with irritation, with a little bit of disappointment.

"That doesn't mean I could have saved them. And don't forget, you're a Prime too Novellus." I flinched slightly when my dad said my Prime name, I really didn't feel like I deserved to be called a Prime.

_"I don't feel like a Prime." _Immediately my father tried to comfort me again. My father opened his mouth to say something, and then thought better of it, and rubbed my wings gently. I still thought it was weird that I had metal wings when I was in human form.

Ratchet explained it as they weren't how I was originally built so they weren't concealed when I was a human. Basically it mean I always had to wear a shirt as a human, which was perfectly fine with me. That was when a knock came from the door.

"Bee, Prime, don't forget that we have the introduction meeting with the new members at 07:30." Jazz called this from the other side of the door, before we heard his footsteps retreating. My father looked at me and rolled his eyes.

"Come on, let's get up." My father said this as he stood up, before turning to where his closest was, muttering as he opened the door. "And get this over with as fast as we can." I smiled, comforted knowing my father was just like every other mech.

Standing up myself, I walked over to my own closest, and pulled out a fresh set of clothes. Since we moved into the new base nearly four years ago, they had those of us able to shift into humans sharing rooms.

My father and I shared, because my father thought it best at the time, when I was still really shaken by the Chevy twin's death. My mother and Chromia shared a room, with an extra cot in there as well, where Arcee would have slept if she had survived the attack, like Jolt would have shared a room with Ratchet if he hadn't been with Arcee.

Sunny and Sides shared a room, while Jazz and Prowl did as well, leaving Ironhide the only mech to get a room to himself. Mirage and Wheeljack slept in the main hanger, while Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers slept in a different hanger near where the Xanthium was being kept.

"Come on Bee, let's go get some energon, before we have to meet the new recruits." I nodded in agreement, not like being stared at by hundreds of new faces, and then having to explain why I didn't talk like the others.

On our way to the main hanger, we were greeted by several soldiers as well as Ironhide and Prowl. I was a little nervous when I saw the a majority of the new recruits were already in the main hanger when we got there, but I would live.

Shortly after we moved into the new base, I had Ratchet set it up so that any texts I got would appear in the upper right hand corner of my vision as a text box so I wouldn't have to keep pulling my phone out to talk to people. So I wasn't surprised when a box appeared in my vision, but I was surprised at the sender.

_'Does this number still belong to Bee Pax?' _The contact that was pulled up with the text was Laura's, which surprised me, because hadn't talked to her since we both graduated high school. When I responded back with yes, she sent back nearly immediately. _'Good I was worried that you had changed numbers.' _

I rolled my eyes and asked her what had been going on with her lately, while my father handed me a bottle of energon. _'Well, I passed my military training a month ago, and I'm finally found out what regiment I'm part of.'_

After I drank my energon, I followed him out of the hanger, shifting to my mech form, before collapsing into my alt mode, and driving back into the hanger, trying to as inconspicous as a bright yellow Camaro could be in a military hanger. _'I got assigned to the 4592nd regiment, what regiment did you say your father was a part of?' _

I had to stop myself from slamming on my breaks when I got her text. The 4592nd regiment was Autobots, which meant Laura was one of the new recruits that came in today. Before I could respond back to her I got a second text from her. _'Meeting is about to start, text ya later.' _

I let out a sigh, knowing that I'd probably have to explain this all to her later. At the moment, the meeting was about to start, so I parked in between my father's alt modes and my mother's, before activating my holoform and stepping out of my alt mode, walking around to lean against the hood.

My father's holoform glanced at me giving me a smile, before looking towards where Lennox was standing and nodding. Lennox nodded back, and then quickly looked down the rest of the line of Autobots, double checking we were all ready, before walking out in front of us.

"Hello, and welcome to the 4592nd regiment, but we usually call it NEST, I'm Colonel William Lennox, your commanding officer. Now the first thing I have to say is that we're a giant family here, and that includes _everyone._" The emphasis on everyone meaning the Autobots as well. "Now, that being said, I also have to emphasis that this is top team is top secret.

"As I said, we're NEST, standing Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Species Team. We work together with the Autobots to defeat the Decepticons, as well as the occasional human threat. Now I'll let the leader of the Autobots take it from here." Lennox stepped to the side of where the new recruits were gathered, while they murmured among themselves.

All of the noise stopped in the room when my father started to transform. I always found it amazing to watch others transform, and knew that those who hadn't seen it before were usually speechless. Once my father stood at his full height he looked down at the humans for a second before kneeling down.

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and these are my officers." Optimus motioned towards the rest of us, and I had to make myself not move under all of the eyes in my direction. "Elita-one is my second in command, with Jazz being third in command. Ratchet is our chief medical officer. Ironhide and Chromia are our weapons specialists, while Wheeljack is our engineer and scientist. Prowl is our chief strategist, the twins Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are our front liners, Mirage is our spy and saboteur, and Bumblebee is our scout and next Prime."

All of us transformed when my father called our names, giving the humans a chance to match a name and job to a face. I stood there quietly while my father explained the Autobot-Decepticon war as well as explaining that we could create holoforms, and some of us could change to be human.

I was glad when the meeting was over, I was planning on finding a less crowded place so I wouldn't have to deal with all of the looks I was getting. That was the worst part of getting new recruits. Of course, I was stopped by Sideswipe grabbing my shoulder.

"Where are you going? We gotta leave in a few minutes, remember, we got the illegal nuclear site in the middle east?" Right, I'd completely forgot about that. I nodded, and was about to follow Sideswipe to where Mirage was waiting by the entrance to the hanger, when my father spoke up.

"Actually, slight change in plans, Sunstreaker will go with you and Mirage, Bumblebee, will accompany me." The red twin nodded, before running off to find his yellow counterpart. "Bumblebee, we will still need to leave immediately, if we are to arrive at Chernobyl on time."

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**A/N: I really actually feel kinda bad for the Chevy twins... And Arcee and Jolt, I had to explain why they weren't in the third movie. Elita is still here 'cause she's Bee's mom, and Chromia is still here because I have other plans for her. Well, see ya next chapter, because if I'm on the third book in the series, I'm just assuming you guys want me to me what you thought of the chapter! See ya in probably less than a week. **


	2. Author's note

I know a lot of you have been waiting for another chapter for this, and I am sorry to say that the story is going to be put on a hiatus, more than like an indefinite one. I really doubt that I will ever come back to this, I'm no longer in the Transformers fandom, and have no real interest in the story anymore. If I ever get back into the fandom again I might continue the story, but that seems highly unlikely at this point. I know many of you were looking forward to the continuation of this story, however I have no motivation to write this series, and I don't want to be writing it if I'm not into it. That would make me unhappy, and the effort I would put into the story would decline, and that would be unfair to you as the reader, because I only want you to read the best of my work. Once again I'm sorry that I'm not continuing this, and have made you wait this long just to find out that I'm not continuing the story.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hi, umm… Long time no see, and I do feel horrible about that. I also am going to say that while I'm updating now, that does not mean that I'm going to start putting out regular updates again. Shit hit the fan in real life, and I needed some way to cope. For me writing has always been a way for me to cope, and because I'm following the third movie, it's pretty easy for me to write without really thinking about it. I don't know if I'm going to write anymore on this, I might end up finishing the story as I'm trying to cope, I just don't know. I am really sorry about abandoning this in the first place. Anyways, here's the long awaited second chapter.**

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I followed my father out of the main hanger, towards the air field we had on base for whenever we needed a plane. When I saw several humans bringing around my father's trailer, I shifted to my human form, making sure that it was securely attached, before climbing into his cab.

I knew that if my father was taking his trailer, the plane was going to be crowded. Ratchet was standing by one of the planes, meaning I would have had to either way. I sat quietly as Ratchet transformed and drove into the plane first followed by my father.

_"Bumblebee, you're being quiet, what's on your mind?" _I jumped slightly when I heard my father speak, and then let out a sigh. _"Did one of the new recruits give you some trouble? You weren't like this, this morning." _

_"No it's not that, I found out that one of the new recruits is Laura. And I don't know how to tell her that her best friend for six years is not human." _My father sent some comfort over our bond as I slumped back in the front seat.

_"Have you thought about just straight up telling her? She knows about us now, she knows that we can shift to a human form, why should it be so hard for her to understand? We have plenty of time until we reach Chernobyl."_

I let out a small sigh, and thought what the worst thing from me just telling her could be. The answer I immediately thought of was a giant chewing out, followed by a few days of her being mad and not talking to me, a week at the most.

'_So what do you think of the Autobots?' _I sent the text to Laura, and hoped for the best. It was almost ten minutes until I got a response back.

'_How long have you known?' _Even though it was a text, I could practically hear the hurt in it, and the hesitance behind it.

_'A while, but you've met some of them before.' _As I sent this, I thought of something that would both be the truth but not the entire truth. Laura responded back a lot faster than last time, and I knew I had her attention.

_'Is one of them your guardian?' _

'_You could put it that way. My parents were civilians who died in a fight between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Optimus found out and took responsibility of me.' _I sent this, and took a couple of deep breaths as I waited for her response.

_'Bee, I'm sorry, I didn't know. Where are you, we should talk about this in person.' _I smiled slightly at this, glad that I was out of the base at the moment, so I could have more time to think about how I was going to fully explain this to her.

_'I'm actually out on a mission at the moment. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I'll find you and we can talk then.' _

'_Okay. Talk to you then.' _When I got her text I smiled, glad that she didn't press me to continue the conversation through text. I looked up at the ceiling of my father's cab, letting my mind wander.

"_I take it Laura took it well." _For the second time in the past hour I jumped when my father spoke through our bond. Immediately my father's whole form shook slightly as he laughed, and I let out an annoyed sigh.

"_I told her that she'd met a few of us before, and I told her that after my parents were killed in a fight, you felt bad and took responsibility for me. Then she suggested we talk about it in person, so I told her I'd find her after I got back from the mission I was on."_

_"You just didn't mention you were a Cybertronian." _I nodded to confirm my father's statement. _"It's going to be a few hours until we reach Chernobyl, I'd suggest sleeping until we get there." _Taking my father's advice, I closed my eyes, and leaned my head against the seat, listening to the sound of my father's spark.

"Bumblebee." My eyes fluttered open, at the sound of my father's voice, and I sat up stretching my arms as wide as I could in the confined space of the cab of my father's alt mode. "We'll be landing in about ten minutes." I nodded, and then reached for the door handle, only to hear the lock engage. "Bumblebee, we're staying here until we're called in." I fell back against the seat with a loud sigh, knowing better than to argue with my father.

We sat in silence as we both listened to the open radios the soldiers had on, talking quietly amongst themselves. It was close to twenty minutes of quiet beeping, and idle chatter before we finally heard that they thought they'd found what they were looking for.

"Okay right here. I think I found it." When Lennox said this all the other voices quieted down. "Optimus, we have visual. It looks like the object is in some sort of metal harness." There was a slight pause, before he continued talking. "What's this?

"Guys, these things seem to have the Soviet space program marking on it."

"Sputnik" One of the other soldiers whispered this.

"Energon readings sir!" As Lennox called this out, an ominous creaking could be heard. Optimus immediately stiffened at this, and I got ready to jump out as soon as it was needed. "It's strong." The beeping of the energon detector sped up till it was almost a constant sound. "It's right below us! It's coming fast."

By that time I could feel the minute tremors that were growing stronger. My breathing quickened as I realized which Decepticon was going after the team. A few seconds later, the sound of metal easily being torn apart by spinning jaws was heard over the radios.

The soldiers were all panicking, and several of them fired off guns, despite their ineffectiveness. Orders to get to the surface were being shouted, and I immediately was out of my father's alt mode. It was obvious that Shockwave was coming up to the surface, and Optimus was going to fight him.

Optimus drove off as soon as I was out of him, driving alongside the long building the NEST team had entered. I took off running after him, only to stop in my tracks when part of Shockwave's creature burst out the top of the building. It crashed back down, before popping back up, continuing to do this several time as my father drove alongside it.

When it burst out sideways in front of Optimus' path, he didn't have time to swerve, ramming full force into the metal beast. He flew backwards, both himself and his trailer transforming in the air and coming to rest not too far away from where Shockwave's beast lay.

My attention was pulled away from my father when NEST soldiers poured out of the building, all shouting orders at each other. Glancing back I see my father pulling out his sword and shield, while ordering them to stay behind him.

I started towards where the soldiers were, only to have the ground erupt beneath us, as small tendrils of the beast pushed their way out of the ground. I glanced around franticly, but there was too much going on for me to shift forms and help my father.

I was forced to the ground, when one of the tendrils burst out of the ground right next to me. That was when I caught a glimpse of what it held in what could only be called its mouth. My father also noticed this, and went after it with his sword, cutting of the head, forcing the machine part to drop at my feet. Several different people yelled at me to pick it up, not that there was anything else I would do.

"Optimus!" I flinched at the sound of Shockwave's voice, and looked fearfully over towards where my father faced the Decepticon, posed for attack. However, Shockwave simply called his beast back around him, and left.

"What the hell was that thing?" One of the soldiers called this out, and I knew they couldn't have been there the last time we'd met Shockwave.

"That was Shockwave." My father said this as he dropped both his sword and shield to the ground as he made his way over to where I was standing, the machine part still in my hands.

"Why was he after this?" Lennox asked this as he came up to me, looking with his head tilted sideways at the piece in my hands. My father quickly shifted to his human form when he got close enough to see what I was holding.

"This is impossible." My father gently took the part out of my hands as he said this, holding it almost reverently. I could feel hope practically swell in him as he looked at it, and I couldn't help but wonder how it could be so important. "This is an engine part, from a long lost Autobot ship. "

I couldn't help but hope when I heard this. Did this mean there could be more Autobots around to help us? I was so stunned I didn't hear the next words out of my father's mouth. It wasn't until he rested a hand on my shoulder that I was pulled out of my thoughts.

I was however, not pleased by the uncharacteristic scowl on his face. Anger also seemed to pulse from my father. He silently placed the part in my arms, before shifting back to his mech form. It was painfully clear that he was not pleased at all, as he picked his sword and shield up off the ground and placing them back in their holders in his transformed trailer. My only question was what could have pissed him off so quickly.

He transformed to his alt mode, and sat their waiting with his door open, obviously waiting for me to get inside. Still holding the piece, I climbed in, feeling his anger coming off of his in waves. Hesitantly I tried to contact him through our bond, only to be blocked by the same anger that was radiation off of him. Shifting uncomfortably, I get ready for a long silent trip back to base, while Optimus broods.

At some point I managed to fall into a restless sleep, but was woken up when the plane set down again. My father sat there with his door open, a silent command for me to get out. Sliding out of his alt mode, I left the part in his cab and waited until he's backed out of the plane to change to my mech form, and then collapse into my alt mode. I followed him silently back to the hanger, listening to the announcements telling us what to do.

_"All arriving Autobots, training and debriefing in fifteen minutes. Mirage, report to bay 23. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, bay 37 for weapons assessment." _At that point I stopped listening, I already knew where to go.

I pulled into the spot for training, and rolled my eyes when I saw Ironhide standing off to the side, smirking at me. I wasn't overly fond of training with new recruits, simply because they often just stared at us. Of course it was usually worse for me simply because I still used the radio speech, which could sometimes be hard to understand.

"Alright. In case you don't remember from the orientation yesterday, this is Bumblebee. He's the team's scout. And today, he'll be helping us show you how to do a Decepticon head kill shot." After the soldier called this out to the new recruits, I transformed, smirking slightly at the slight gasp some of them still let out.

I stood there listening to as they explained what they were going to do to the recruits. At the same time, I scanned them, and froze slightly when I saw a young woman I was certain was Laura in the small crowd of recruits. Of course she would be in the group I was training with.

"Ready?" I nodded to the soldier who was running the training. "Alright guys, this is how you do a Decepticon head kill shot." As he called this out, two other soldiers dropped from the ceilings on lines. I was pulled down by them, and when they rolled on the ground, they stopped with their guns pointed at my head.

"That's how it is done. That's also all we're going to do today. We'll actually let you guys practice at a later point." There was a quiet murmur of disappointed when he said this, but he quickly squashed it. "The Autobots are all very busy, and there are only so many of them. They can't do everything at once. Now break."

As the recruits started to dissipate, I moved off to the side, and shifted to my human form. I always had the fear of stepping on one of the recruits because they didn't know they needed to stay out of the way. Making my way back towards where I had last seen Ironhide, I froze for a second when I saw to young woman I thought was Laura moving towards him as well.

"Excuse me, sir." She called this out, and caught Ironhide's attention. "I was wondering if you might know where a young man called Bee Pax might be." Ironhide tilted his head to the side slightly, obviously wondering if he should actually tell her. When he caught sight of me silently coming up behind her, I nodded, and he smiled.

"As it happens I do know where he is."

"Hi Laura." I smiled as she spun around a look of shock on her face for half a second before she flung her arms around my neck and pulled me into a hug. After a second, she let go, and took a step back to get a better look at me.

"I can't believe it's you. Small world huh?" I nodded and she narrowed her eyes slightly. "Are you still playing the silent game?" I nodded again, and she rolled her eyes. "But you just talked!" I rubbed my throat, and she looked at me sympathetically. "It's still bothering you?" I nodded again, but before she could ask any more questions, I heard my mom calling for me.

"Bumblebee." I glanced over towards where my mom was shifting from her femme form to human, continuing towards me. Laura followed my gaze, before glancing between the two of us.

"Wait, you're Bumblebee?"

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**A/N: As I said before, I'm not sure when or if I'm going to update again. My life is just a piece of shit right now, and writing is how I cope. So there's no telling if I'm going to feel like writing this again, or if I'll pick up some other long forgotten piece, or start a new one. I just don't know. Reviews would be appreciated, they always make my day, and I kinda need that right now. **


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey, it's been a while. I went through a lot of my old work over the weekend and fell back in love with my Change series. So for now I'm starting to write again. I also wanted to thank everyone who wished that my life could get on track after I said shit hit the fan. I'm not going to lie, everything's not completely fine, but things are never going to be the same again, and I just have to make the best of things. Still thank you to all of you who were hoping things got better. That means a lot to me. Now on with the chapter. **

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"_Wait. You're Bumblebee?"_

I nodded with a small jerk of my head, my eyes glued on the young woman I had considered a close friend for the past six years. Laura was silent for a few seconds, before she broke into a huge smile. She practically pounced on me as she flung her arms around my neck.

"That explains so much!" I couldn't help but stand there and blink.

"_~You're not - angry?~" _I asked this through my radio, and Laura jumps slightly, obviously not expecting that. She still smiles and laughs though.

"I'm not angry. Ever so slightly perturbed you didn't tell me sooner, but I understand why you didn't." The blonde paused for a moment and let out a small laugh as she swept her hair out of her face. "My best friend is an alien from the stars that's been posing as a human for the past several years… This is awesome!" For a second her shoulders sagged and the smile fell from her face. "My dad would have loved this…" It was at that time Elita stepped up into our conversation.

"Laura, it's nice to see you again. I hate to cut your conversation short, however I need Bee for a little while."

"I'm off for the rest of the day. May I come along? Unless I don't have the clearance of course." Laura stood a little straighter as she asked this, and my mother narrowed her eyes at her for a second before relenting.

"It's fine with me, and if it's okay with Bee then I don't have a problem with it. Right now it just seems to be a bit of a family problem." As my mom says this, Laura turns to look at me. Immediately I give her a thumbs up, and motion for her to follow. As Elita starts leading us through the base, Laura looked at me with a smirk.

"I just realized you completely denied your own existence on your first day of school." I gave her a sheepish smile in response and she playfully rolled her eyes. Before she could say anything else, we could now see where Optimus was just sitting in his alt mode in front of the piece we brought back from Chernobyl.

"I will say that he's not normally like this. He's been waiting for the higher ups to get here. He doesn't like explaining things more than once." Laura nodded in understanding to my mother's words as she came to a stop to just stare at where my father was sitting.

"_~Don't look now~" _I play this quietly as I pointed to Charlotte Mearing who was quickly making her way towards Optimus while chewing out Lennox at the same time. Wheeljack seemed to notice her at the same time, handing the gun he was holding off to Ironhide, telling him it was the perfect invention.

"Ah, you're here. My name's Wheeljack, and I hope you have some answers for him. I've never seen him so upset." The woman ignored Wheeljack as she continued to practically march towards Optimus.

"Optimus, you remember Charlotte Mearing… The Director of National Intelligence…" Lennox seemed at a loss, having always gotten some sort of response in the past.

"He's in a bad mood. He's not talking to anybody." Mirage said this and I could practically hear Mearing roll her eyes at this. Instead she looked towards Lennox, obviously expecting an answer.

"What is this? The silent treatment?" While the other Autobots in the area discussed the fact that this was not the silent treatment from Optimus, Laura leaned over to me.

"Bee, are you sure I have clearance for this?"

"_~You'll be fine~" _I waved it off and turned my attention back towards my father as Ironhide approached him.

"Prime! Make something of yourself!" As he said this Ironhide gave him one firm hit, and immediately my father started to transform. "He's pissed." Ironhide muttered this oh so helpfully. I was however surprised that Mearing just stared at Optimus, completely unimpressed and unafraid.

"You lied to us." My eyes widened a little at that. It was a serious accusation, and everyone around here knew it. "Everything humans know of our planet, we were told, had all been shared. So why was this found this found in human possession?"

I once again took a moment to study the part that was sitting on the table. It certainly was a cybertronian part of something, but I wasn't quite sure if this was as big a deal as my father was making it out to be. But at the same time, I'd never known my father to exaggerate anything before.

"We were in the dark on this also. It was director only clearance in Sector Seven. Until now. The bag." Mearing glanced over her shoulder towards her assistant, and I immediately felt bad for the young woman as she tried to sort through the numerous bags she had in her arms.

"Which bag?" The assistant asked this quietly, and shrank back a bit when Mearing glared at her. She spat out something which I assumed was the type of bag, and the assistant hurried forward to pass the bag she had finally picked to Mearing. She dug something out of the bag as she started to speak again.

"This is a secret few men know, and fewer still remain alive. Allow me to introduce to you, two of NASA's founding Mission Directors and Astronaut Doctor Buzz Aldrin. One of the first two men to step foot on the moon." Mearing walked over to the men who were walking in, giving the astronaut a firm handshake as she introduced him. "Sir, Optimus Prime." The astronaut nodded his head as he took a step forward.

"From a fellow space traveler, it's a true honor." In response Optimus knelt down to be less intimidating towards the man.

"The honor is mine." I rolled my eyes slightly when I heard Laura let out a little squeak from beside me. Mearing quickly took the floor back as she started talking again.

"Our entire space race of the 60's, it appears, was in response to an event." Surprisingly enough she actually let one of the other men talk about what was going on.

"Our astronauts investigated a crashed alien ship. No survivors on board." At that point the astronaut, presumably one of the first few to actually get a look at the crash spoke up.

"We were sworn to secrecy by our commander and chief."

"A total of thirty five people knew the real plan at NASA."

"Soviets managed to land unmanned probes. Somehow they must have picked up that fuel rod." The third man said this while Mearing got something up on the screens she was standing by.

"We believe the Russians deduced that the rod was a fissionable fuel assembly, believed they had it mastered, and then tried to harness it at Chernobyl."

"We manned six missions in all. Took hundreds of photos, and samples. We locked them away forever. Then the moon program was shut down."

"Well, did you search the crash vault?" Ironhide asked this like it was the most obvious question in the world. And I agree with him, but I also knew the humans wouldn't have known where to search.

"The ship's name was the Arc. I watched it escape Cybertron myself." I perked up as my father started to talk and followed near his pedes as he took a couple of steps forward. "It was carrying an Autobot technology which would have won us the war. And it's captain." I frowned at that, I didn't ever remember having a definite hope of winning the war like Optimus seemed to be talking about, and could only guess it must have happened when I was really little. I also had a bad feeling about who the captain was.

"Who is this captain?" Mearing asked this urgently as she leaned closer to where my father was gently gripping the railing.

"The great Sentinel Prime," My tank dropped at this, and tried not to let it show. "The technology's inventor. He was commander of the Autobots before me. It's imperative that I find him before the Decepticons learn of its location. Our Autobots spacecraft has the ability to get there, and you must pray it's in time." With that Optimus turned away from Mearing, leaving her a little pissed.

"And what if we say no?" Mearing called this after Optimus, who didn't even bother to look back at her as he responded.

"I would like to see you try and stop us." Obviously not knowing how to respond to that, Mearing let my father leave. Not wanting to be left near that woman, I grabbed Laura's hand and took off after my father.

"Bee, I'm still not sure I had the clearance for that conversation." I rolled my eyes at the blonde's obvious worry about this.

"_~They're the ones ~ who decided to ~ talk in the ~ hanger~" _Laura's shoulders slumped slightly at my answer, but seemed to take it in stride.

"I guess you're right… So, what's the deal with the radio talk?" As she asked this, I glanced around, slightly uncomfortable with the number of other new recruits. Deciding I didn't care that much I answered.

"_~It doesn't really work.~" _I motioned towards my neck as I 'said' this, and dropped my hand afterwards. "_~I like ~ having a voice ~ even if it's not ~ really my own~" _In response she gave me a sad smile, and I smiled back.

"Ya know what I really wanna know? I wanna know what the secret to perpetual youth is. You still look like you're fifteen."

"He _is _still fifteen." Both Laura and I jumped slightly when Optimus joined our conversation in his human form. "Each of your years is approximately one of our months. His creation day hasn't passed yet, although if our calculations are correct, then it should be in later November three years from now." I giggled slightly as my father pulled me into a one armed hug. At the same time I noticed Laura frown ever so slightly. Then she caught herself and smiled but I could tell that it didn't reach her eyes.

"You know Bee, you don't really look like your dad, so I guess you take after your mom?"

"_~Actually ~ I'm adopted ~ I wasn't kidding ~ when I said ~Optimus ~ took me in ~ after an ~ attack ~ I don't remember ~ I was ~ really young~" _Laura nodded in understanding, and Optimus gave me a slight squeeze before letting go of me.

"I have to go make sure the preparations are going smoothly." I nodded in response and my father started to walk away. As soon as he was far enough away, I let out a sigh.

"Bee is everything okay?" My friend asked me this as she set her hand down on my shoulder. My response was to shrug.

"_~I hope ~ I'm worrying about ~ nothing~" _Laura's reaction was to frown.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I shook my head and she simply nodded in understanding.

"_~So, how have you been?~" _I asked this as we walked towards one of the rest areas in the hanger.

"Same old, same old. My mom still doesn't approve of my choice of a military career, but I kinda stopped caring what she thought a while ago." Laura said this as she flopped on the couch in the corner.

"_~What about ~ your dad?~ what does he think?~" _To that Laura put her head in her hands and let out a sigh. "_~That bad?~" _

"No, I'm sure he would be supportive. He always told me to follow my dreams. It's just, he died. It was two years ago, but it's still really hard sometimes. Like seeing you and your dad…" I shifted uncomfortably, remembering the time my own father had died.

"_~Remember the ~ fiasco ~ spring of ~ our junior year? ~ During that ~ mission ~ I watched ~ my dad ~ die. ~ Worst moment of my life. ~ I know how you feel.~" _Laura looked up at me and when our eyes met she immediately pulled me into a hug.

"Oh Bee! I remember how shaken you were when you got back. I had no clue." At the end she pulled away but still kept her hands on my shoulders. We both gave each other an understanding smile, and then our peace was interrupted. On either side of us sat down one of the terror twins.

"So, how long have you two been dating?"

* * *

**A/N: Once again thank you to all who reviewed last chapter. **

**Read: **Thank you, it's nice to know people still like this.

**Witch08: **I'm back, and will probably continue this, but I'm not entirely sure when updates will come out, I am in school and that comes first. I also have loved your support from the very beginning, it means a lot to me that you've stuck with me, even with my huge leaves of absence. I probably won't be continuing the dragonformers story, I have no real clue where I was going with it. I also don't know how I feel about giving it to other writers.

**silversliced-rain: **Glad you liked the chapter.

**artranger 27: **It's nice to know you love the Change series. The family moments are my favorite moments too.

**doglover11: **Thanks for the hug. I definitely took my time posting another chapter.

**Savvy Orion childofcommander: **Thank you for your support, as I said earlier things are looking up, but they can't really be righted. Writing has definitely helped me through it. I just didn't really return to this story.

**HeartsGuardianSol: **I'm glad you stumbled upon my stories, but it's unfortunate you had to do so while in the hospital, hope you're better now.

**Andrea: **Sorry it took so long to write the next chapter.

**Guest: **Glad you liked it.

**I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out. School takes up a lot of my time, but hopefully I'll update semi soon. Until then! **


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